Railroad Stations of Chemung County Postcards & Photos Chemung County NY Home Page Volunteer Photographers

Historic Hotels Historic Theaters Photographers Postcard at left Submitted by Creig Crippen

I opened up another can of worms earlier in the week by posting a query on the PABRADFO [Rootsweb] list concerning passenger rail service in Tioga Co. The response has been extraordinary!

You may want to check out this link - since I saw that you had posted a few photos of old train stations. http://libwww.syr.edu/digital/images/e/ErieRailroad/

The 'Tioga Division' section has photos of nearly all of the stations along that line - mostly from 1909. This time, I'm keeping track of the responses, links, anecdotes and whatever, as they come in.

Dave Clark   Belmont, NC

I came across something that I'm sure our internet archeologists will appreciate reading. This part refers to our neighborhood in particular.

http://russnelson.com/inventory/inventory-of-abandoned-railroad-rights-of-way-region-6.html

maps http://russnelson.com/inventory/maps/ are available, too.

Cheers, Ewa

On Monday John H. Way, who had been for thirty years a conductor on the Fall Brook railroad, resigned that situation and became chief clerk in the office of George R. Brown, General Superintendent of the Railroad Company. He left the railroad by choice to take a business situation more to his liking and for a variety of reasons more desirable. His retirement from active service on the railroad, which he served so long and faithfully, offers occasion for reminiscence. Mr. Way first became a Conductor in 1857. He was then only twenty years of age. He was appointed by L.H. Shattuck, the then Superintendent of the Tioga Railroad, as Conductor of the mail train running from Corning to Blossburg, which route was in 1860 extended to Fall Brook. For twenty years he served in that capacity. When the Syracuse, Geneva & Corning Railroad was built by the Fall Brook Company in 1877, Conductor Way was placed in charge of the night and day express between Corning and Geneva, his run being extended to Lyons on the building of the branch to that place. He continued on that run until Saturday, when he made his last trip as a Conductor. When he began railroading there were only four locomotives on the road. Their names were Corning, Morris, Colket and Baltimore. They were all wood-burners, and had to stop frequently at stations to get fuel. It was during the early part of his service that these locomotives were changed from wood-burners to coal-burners. It was the first use of coal on that road as fuel for the motive power. The change was an innovation ? an experiment ? but it ?worked,? and thereafter all the other locomotives ? and subsequently those on the Erie Railroad ? burned coal. It is an interesting fact that Conductor Way brought on his train the first supply of bituminous coal mined at Fall Brook, Pa. This was in 1860. The coal was carried in four barrels. Two were shipped to W.E. Gregg, Master Mechanic of the Erie Railroad at Susquehanna; and the other two were for Reed Wilson, a coal agent at Buffalo. The coal was sent to them for trial, and for the purpose of introducing it in the market. Conductor Way has seen the Fall Brook Railroad develop from small proportions into one of the busiest and most important iron thoroughfares in the East. The four feeble wood-burning locomotives which the old Tioga road had during his young Conductorship have now given place to 62 powerful engines. When he first began his run, the coal and freight traffic was in its infancy. There was so little freight that one car, sent from Corning every other day, sufficed to hold all the freight articles consigned along the entire route from Blossburg. As for coal, the traffic in that was of course larger, but not more then 30 cars daily ? or 4,500 tons monthly ? were brought to Corning. That was all the coal that could be disposed of, to consumers north, east and west. Now the freight traffic is immense, great trains running over the road daily, and 200,000 tons of coal on an average passing each month through Corning. Conductor Way made an enviable record as a Conductor. It is but just to say that his record was ever free from spot or blemish. No railroad official was more attentive to duty, or more honorable in all his business relations. He won and retained the regard of his employers, by his conscientious and untiring efforts to discharge his duties with credit to himself and satisfaction to the traveling public. He never received a word of reprimand from the Company, and he never caused the loss of one dollar to his employers by reason of mistakes or errors of judgment. He probably has as large an acquaintanceship as any man in the country. Thirty years is a long period, and in that time he has made thousands of intimate acquaintances, who esteem him for his intelligence, his tact, and his undeviating courtesy. During the last ten years his run has been through six Counties of this State. Starting from Corning ? which, as the crow flies, is only nine miles from the Pennsylvania line ? he has gone north through Steuben County, cutting through the northwest corner of Chemung, passing through Schuyler, up through the Counties of Yates and Ontario, and finally bringing up in Wayne County at Lyons, which is only eleven miles from Lake Ontario. He had made this trip daily and has thus practically crossed the Empire State every day for a decade. He estimates that during his thirty years as Conductor he has traveled one million miles ? a distance equal to forty times around the globe. He is certainly worthy, from a life of veteran service, to have emeritus written after his name.